Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-12-29

were rallied and helped to win ths day.
On, ye who have bsen routed in the con.
nicts OF life, try by the force of music to raj.
lyyour scattered battalions.
am glad to know that in our great
cities there is hardly . night in which
there are not concerts, where, with the
best musical instruments and tho sweet
est voices, people may find entertainment.
rafronize such entertainments when they
ara Afforded you. Buy season tickets, il
you can. for tho Philharmonic and the
Handel and Haydn societies. Feel that
the Si.50 or = that you spend for the pur.
pose OF hearing an artist rlay or sing is .
profitable investment. Let your Steinway
halls and your academies Of music roar
with the reclamation Of appreciative
audiences assembled at the concert or the
oratorio.
Still further, commend as worthy Of
their support tho gymnasium. This in
stitution is gaining in favor every year,
and know Of moth ing more free from
dissipation or more cal culated to re-
cuperate the physical and mental ener-
gies. While there are q good many peo.
pie who have employed this institution,
there is vast number who are
ignorant Of its excellence. There
are men with cramped chest and
weak sides and respondent spirits,
who, through the gymnasium, might
be reused up to exuberance and
exhiaration of life. There are many
Christian people Respondent from year to
year. who might, through such an institu-
ton, be benefited in their spiritual rela-
tions. There are Christian people who
seem to think that it is good sign to be
poorly; and because Richard Baxter and
Robert Hall were invalids, they think that
by tie same sickness they may come to
the same grandeur of character. / want
to tell the Christian people OF my congre-
cation that God will hold YOU responsible
for your invalidism il it is your fault. and
when through right exercise and prudence
you might be athletic and well. The eff
feet Of the body upon the soul you &C.
knowledge. Put man of mild disposi.
ton upon the animal diet Of which the
Indian partakes, and in little while his
blood will change its chemical proper.
tions. 1t will become like unto the blood
OF the lion, or the tiger. or the bear, while
his disposition will change, AMI become
fierce. cruel and unrelenting. The body
has powerful effect uEon the soul.
There are good people whose ideas Of
Heaven are all shut out with clouds of
tobacco smoke. There are people who
dare to shatter the physical vase in which
God has put the jewel of eternity. There
are men with great hearts and intellects
in bodies worn out by their own neglects
magnificent machinery. capable of pro-
polling Great Eastern across the Allan
tic, yet fastened in a ricEety North River
propeller. Martin Luther was so mighty
for God, first, because he had a noble
soul, and secondly, because he had a
muscular development which would have
enabled him to thrash any five of his per-
secutors, il it had been Christian
so to do. Physical development
which merely shows itself in
fabulous lifting, or in psrilous rope
walking, or in pugilstic encounter, ex-
cites only our contempt; but we confess to
great admiration for the man who has q
great soul in an athletic body, every
nerve, muscle and bone Of which is con-
secrated to right uses. Oh. it seems to
me outrageous that men, through neglect,
should allow their physical health to go
down beyond repair. A ship which ought,
with all sail set and every man at his
post, to be carrying q rich cargo for
eternity, employing all its men in stop
ping up leakages. When you may,
through the gymnasium, work of your
spleen and your querulousness and one.
half of your physical and mental all
ments, do not turn your back upon such a
grand medicament.
Still further: commend to you a large
class of parlor games and recreations.
There is way Of making our homes a
hundred fold more attractive than they
are now. Those parents can not expect
to keep their children away from outside
dissipation unless they make the domestic
circle brighter than any thing they can
find outside Of it. Do not, then, sit in
your homo surly and unsympathetic, and
with half-condemna'o ry look, because
of the sportfulness OF your children. You
were young once YOURSELF; let your chill
dren be- young. Because your eyes are
dim and your ankles are stiff, do not de-
nouncs sportfulness in those upon
whose eyes there is the first luster,
and in whose foot there is the bound
ing joy of robust health. / thank
God that in our drawing-roo and in our
parlors there are innumerable games and
sports which have not upon them the
homes with innocent biler;ties. Do not
sit down with the rheumatism, wonder
ing how children can go on so. Rather
thank God that their hearts are so light,
and their laughter is so free, and that
their checks are so ruddy, and that their
expectations are so radiant. The night
will come soon enough, and the heart
break and the pang and the desc ation-it
- l.
dren. But when the storm actually clouds
the sky, it will be time enough for you
to haul out your reef tackles. Carry,
then, into your homes not
only the innocent sports and
games which are the inventions of our
own day, but the games which come down
with the sportfulness Of all the past ages
chess. and charades. and tableaux, and
battledore. and calisthenics, and lawn
tennis, and all those amusemsnts which
the young people of our homes know so
we'll how to contrive. Then there will be
the parlor soc a!ties-groups of people
assembled in your homes, with wit and
and joviality, filling the room
with joy from the door to the mantel, and
from the carpet to the ceiling. Oh, is
there any exhilaratiOn like a score of
genial souls in one room, each one adding
a contribution of his own individual mer.
riment to the aggregation of general hilar-
itv?
Suppose you want to go abroad in the
city, then you will find the panorama and
the art gallery, and exquisite collections
Of pictures. You will find the Metropol.
tian Museum and the Historical Society
rooms full of rare curiosities. and scores
of places which can stand plainly the test
of what is right and wrong in amuse-
ments. You will find the lecturing hall,
which has been honored by the names of
Agassiz in natural history, Doremus in